Quantitative transcriptome analysis using RNA-seq

Methods Mol Biol. 2014:1158:71-91. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-0700-7_5.

Abstract

RNA-seq has emerged as the technology of choice to quantify gene expression. This technology is a convenient accurate tool to quantify diurnal changes in gene expression, gene discovery, differential use of promoters, and splice variants for all genes expressed in a single tissue. Thus, RNA-seq experiments provide sequence information and absolute expression values about transcripts in addition to relative quantification available with microarrays or qRT-PCR. The depth of information by sequencing requires careful assessment of RNA intactness and DNA contamination. Although the RNA-seq is comparatively recent, a standard analysis framework has emerged with the packages of Bowtie2, TopHat, and Cufflinks. With rising popularity of RNA-seq tools have become manageable for researchers without much bioinformatical knowledge or programming skills. Here, we present a workflow for a RNA-seq experiment from experimental planning to biological data extraction.

MeSH terms

  • Circadian Clocks / genetics
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Gene Expression Profiling* / methods
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing* / methods
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA* / methods